JP2010165286A - Content retrieval apparatus in digital av equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the content retrieval apparatus of digital AV equipment for relieving economical burdens of a user without passing development costs on to product prices. <P>SOLUTION: The content retrieval apparatus of the digital AV equipment includes: a first means for accepting a retrieval key from the user of the digital AV equipment, retrieving and displaying digital content to which meta data corresponding to the accepted retrieval key is added by considering the digital content such as moving images accumulated in any of information equipment such as other digital AV equipment and a computer connected to a network conforming to DLNA, etc. as a retrieval object; and a second means for acquiring advertisement content related to the retrieval key from a plurality of advertisement distribution devices managed by advertisers or advertising agents, and preferentially displaying advertisement content of an advertiser or an advertising agent who has made a contract to pay for display of advertisement with the provider or the developer of the content retrieval apparatus among the obtained advertisement contents on a display means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a content search apparatus incorporated as a content search engine in a digital audio / visual device (hereinafter referred to as a digital AV device), and more particularly to a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compliant network or a home network such as Ethernet (registered trademark). When searching for digital content such as moving images, still images, and music stored in a connected digital AV device, advertisements related to the searched digital content, particularly those contracted with the developer or provider of the content search device The present invention relates to a content search apparatus that searches and displays main advertisement content preferentially.

Some conventional digital AV devices have a function of searching for other digital AV devices in the home or storage stored in the storage when digital contents are stored in each device. The search range is only digital content.
The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 below provides a means by which a software developer can add an advertisement output function to self-made software without taking time, but the target device is a so-called server / client system. Therefore, it is not assumed to be incorporated in a digital AV device.
The technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 below provides a method of displaying an advertisement during or immediately after installation of software. However, since the method is limited to the installation operation, it is fundamentally different from the present invention. The way of thinking is different.

JP 2002-269449 A Patent No. 4056372

By the way, when searching for advertising content related to a target digital content such as video or music, the target advertising content is stored in a form such as DVD or Blu-ray brought into the house. And commercial images included when a TV program is recorded on the HDD. Further, when the search is performed, if the home network is connected to the Internet, the advertising content on the Internet is also included in the search range, and a wider range of advertising content is hit. A user of a digital AV device can obtain related advertisement contents in addition to the contents such as moving images accumulated by the user.
However, a search engine (content search device) that provides such a function to a user of an AV device is either manufactured by a home electric appliance manufacturer or purchased by incorporating a software product of a specialized manufacturer. In any case, development costs and purchase costs will be incurred, which will push up the product development costs of the manufacturer and pass on to the product price, resulting in higher product prices and increased economic burden on the user. Become.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a digital AV device content search apparatus that can reduce the economic burden on the user.

In order to achieve the above object, a content search apparatus for a digital AV device according to the present invention receives a search key from a user of the digital AV device, and is connected to a DLNA-compliant network or another digital AV connected to a network such as the Internet. First means for searching for and displaying digital content to which metadata corresponding to the received search key is added, with digital content such as moving images stored in any of information devices such as devices and computers as search targets; The advertisement content related to the search key is acquired from a plurality of advertisement distribution devices managed by a plurality of advertisers or advertising agents, and among the acquired advertisement contents, between the provider or developer of the content search device Advertisers who have contracted to pay for showing ads on Or a second means for displaying the advertising content of the advertising agent on the display means with priority, and the displayed advertising content is aggregated by the advertiser or the advertising agent, and the advertiser or the advertising agent's And a third means for transmitting to the information terminal via the network.
Further, the second means determines whether the advertiser or the advertising agent contracted to pay for the advertisement displayed by the advertiser or advertising agent of the advertising content acquired from the plurality of advertising distribution devices. The determination is made by referring to information of an advertiser or an advertising agent registered in advance in the contractor table.
Further, the second means refers to a contractor table in which identification information of an advertiser or an advertising agent who has contracted to pay a price for displaying an advertisement is registered, and is registered in the contractor table. The advertisement content is acquired only from the advertisement distribution device managed by the advertiser or the advertising agent.

According to the present invention, another digital AV device connected to a DLNA-compliant network or a network such as the Internet, such as a moving image, a still image, or music corresponding to a search key designated by the user of the digital AV device, Contracts to search from information devices such as computers and the database of own devices, display the search results, and pay the price for displaying advertisements with the content search device provider or developer The advertising content of the advertiser or advertising agent is preferentially displayed on the display means, and the provider or developer of the content search apparatus receives payment for the display.
As a result, the cost for developing the content search apparatus can be shared by the advertiser or agent, and as a result, the economic burden on the user of the digital AV device can be reduced.
For the advertiser, there is an advantage that the digital AV device can be used as a new advertising medium.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the illustrated embodiment.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, DLNA-compliant digital AV equipment such as a digital TV 1 and a media player 2 with HDD, and information equipment such as a personal computer (PC) 3 are connected by a DLNA-compliant home network 4 and are connected via a home gateway 5. A configuration connected to the Internet 6 is shown.
The Internet 6 is connected to a plurality of advertisement content distribution servers 7a to 7n managed by an advertiser or its agent and distributing various types of advertisement contents, and digital AV devices in other home networks are connected via a home gateway. Connected.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each of the devices 1 to 3 includes a content search device 10 therein, and content storage means 11 such as a hard disk (HDD) or a memory medium that stores digital content such as moving images, still images, and music. It has. In addition, an input unit 12 for inputting a digital content search key and the like and a browser 13 for displaying the searched digital content are provided. A database 14 is also provided for storing the retrieved digital content together with metadata including information on the storage destination.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the content search apparatus 10 accepts a search key by a user's operation from the input means 12 of a digital AV device, and a moving image stored in any other digital AV device or information device such as a computer. The digital content such as is searched for, the digital content to which the metadata corresponding to the accepted search key is added is searched and displayed on the browser 13, and the metadata is added to the searched digital content and stored in the database 14. The digital content search means 100 that acquires the advertisement content related to the search key from a plurality of advertisement distribution servers 7a to 7n managed by a plurality of advertisers or advertising agents, and the content search device among the acquired advertisement contents Display advertisements with 10 providers (or developers) Advertising content search means 101 that preferentially displays the advertising content of the advertiser or advertising agent who has contracted to pay the compensation to the browser 13 and displays the displayed advertising content by advertiser or advertising agent And a display result reporting means 102 for transmitting to the advertisement distribution servers 7a to 7n of the advertiser or the advertising agent in a predetermined period unit (for example, one month unit) via the network.

In the above configuration, the content storage unit 11 provided in each of the devices 1 to 3 stores digital content such as a moving image together with metadata such as a creation date, a creator, and an outline.
In the above configuration, when searching for the desired digital content, first, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, it is confirmed whether there is a DLNA connection or an Internet connection (steps 500 and 501), and accordingly. The search range and the search key are input from the input means 12, and the storage location (existing location) of the digital content having metadata corresponding to the search key and the advertisement content are searched from the home media and network (502, 503). . The search result is displayed on the browser 13 (step 504).

  As for the storage location (existing location) of the digital content of the search result, for example, a device actually stored in a digital television or a hard disk of a personal computer is searched. Then, metadata such as the creation date, creator, and outline of the searched digital content is stored in the database 14 in the format shown in FIG. This stored information is referred to in the next search.

When displaying the advertising content of the search result, the advertising content of the advertiser or advertising agent who has contracted to pay for the display of the advertisement with the provider (or developer) of the content search device 10 is displayed. Display on the browser 13 with priority.
That is, in the contractor table 103, information of an advertiser or an advertising agent who has contracted to pay a price for displaying an advertisement with the provider (or developer) of the content search apparatus 10 is registered in advance. Has been.
Therefore, if the advertising content corresponding to the search key is hit, it is confirmed whether the advertiser is an advertiser or an advertising agent registered in advance in the contractor table. If so, the browser 13 is prioritized. To display. However, otherwise, it is not displayed.

The display result reporting unit 102 of the content search device 10 totals the number of displayed advertisement contents by advertiser, and transmits the total result to the advertisement content distribution servers 7a to 7n, for example, in units of one month.
In this case, if the displayed advertisement content is like a banner advertisement, the number of operations on the advertisement content may be aggregated and reported.
The administrator of the distribution server 7 that has received the display result of the advertising content on a monthly basis pays the price to the provider (or developer) of the content search device 10 according to the contract.
When searching for the advertising content corresponding to the search key, the advertising content is searched for only the distribution server managed by the advertiser of the advertising content contractor registered in the contracting table 103, and the search result is displayed. You may make it display.

  It should be noted that the contractor information registered in the contractor table 103 is configured to be updated at any time through a network such as the Internet (registered trademark), so that a large number of advertisers' advertisement contents are displayed, and the display results are displayed. You can earn a lot of consideration. Then, by making the consideration the development cost of the content search device 10, the product price of the content search device 10 can be lowered, and as a result, the economic burden on general users can be reduced.

It is a system configuration | structure figure which shows the structural example of the household equipment which uses the content search apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the example of an internal structure of the apparatus carrying the content search apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the content search apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the preservation | save location of digital content memorize | stored in a database, and metadata. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of digital content and advertisement content.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Digital television 2 Media player with HDD 3 Personal computer 4 Home network 5 Home gateway 6 Internet 7 Advertisement content distribution server 10 Content search device 11 Content storage means 14 Database 100 Digital content search means 101 Advertisement content search means 102 Search result report means 103 Contractor table

Claims (3)

Receiving a search key from a user of a digital AV device, moving images stored in one of the other digital AV devices connected to a DLNA-compliant network or the Internet, such as an information device such as a computer, and the database of the device itself Search for and display digital content with metadata corresponding to the search key accepted, and add metadata to the searched digital content and store it in the database along with the storage location information First means to:
The advertising content related to the search key is acquired from a plurality of advertisement distribution devices managed by a plurality of advertisers or advertising agents, and among the acquired advertising content, between the provider or developer of the content search device A second means for preferentially displaying on the display means the advertising content of an advertiser or advertising agent who has contracted to pay for the display of the advertisement;
And a third means for counting the displayed advertising content by advertiser or advertising agent and transmitting the counting result to the information terminal of the advertiser or advertising agent in units of a predetermined period. Content retrieval device for digital AV equipment.   The second means contracts whether an advertiser or an advertising agent of advertising content acquired from a plurality of advertising distribution apparatuses is an advertiser or an advertising agent who has contracted to pay for displaying an advertisement. 2. The content search apparatus for a digital AV device according to claim 1, wherein the determination is made with reference to information of an advertiser or an advertisement agent registered in advance in the advertiser table.   The second means refers to a contractor table in which identification information of an advertiser or an advertising agent who has contracted to pay a price for displaying an advertisement is registered, and an advertisement registered in the contractor table. 2. The content search apparatus for a digital AV device according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement content is acquired only from an advertisement distribution apparatus managed by a main or an advertisement agent.

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